Doing a 180

Pro-Life Documentary Video Goes Viral

If you haven’t yet seen the powerful documentary “180”, do yourself a favor and take 30 minutes out of your day to watch the attached film. It’s worth taking a look at and sharing with others. Just a warning - the film does contain graphic images.

Created by evangelical pastor Ray Comfort, the film features interviews with people on the street, many of them college students.

At first, you’ll be dismayed at the students’ ignorance of history, but keep watching.

Comfort goes on to present each of them with a hypothetical situation that goes like this:

It’s 1943. A German officer has a gun pointed at you. He wants you to get into a bulldozer and drive it forward. In front of the bulldozer is a pit in which there are 300 Jews who have just been shot. Some of them are still alive. He wants you to bury them alive! If you don’t do what he says, he is going to kill you and do it himself. If you do what he says, he will let you live. Would you drive it forward?

Comfort said that he was both surprised and sickened by many of the initial responses.

“I was surprised that so many said that they could bury another person alive. I felt sickened, but at the same time I don’t know if I believed others when they quickly said that they would take the bullet, rather than do it,” Comfort told The Christian Post. “I guess it takes a lot of soul-searching. It certainly is a character-test for each of us.”

Then, Comfort transitions to the topic of abortion. With just a few questions, Comfort is able to get many of them to reconsider their position on abortion. It’s amazing to see how they change their minds in just a matter of seconds.

Released just over a week ago, the YouTube video has already received more than half a million views. The film’s Facebook page has received between 800 and 1,000 “Likes” per day.

Comments

Gee, I echoed the word bleep just like all the other viewers, and I didn’t inhale. Hypocritical? The movie suggests the ends justify the means. “Just wait till you see the end; it’s worth it.” A fellow in Kansas murdered an aborton doctor. How many unborn babies did he save? “Thou shalt not kill” is not a complex statement. I watched until the vulgarity and blasphemy became overwhelming. I was disgusted with myself. I would never share such with those I love.

Posted by Bill Fortenberry on Thursday, Oct 13, 2011 9:46 PM (EDT):

The inalienable right to life possessed by every human being is present from the moment of initial formation, and all human beings shall be entitled to the equal protection of persons under the law. Learn more at: http://www.personhoodinitiative.com/about-personhood.html

Posted by John on Tuesday, Oct 11, 2011 6:51 AM (EDT):

I’m not sure what I think of this video. I believe abortion is indeed murder, but I have two concerns with the approach taken by the half-hour film.

First, it feels like intellectual bullying, which I don’t think produces lasting change. It is unfair for an unprepared person to face a highly scripted argument with leading questions meant to draw them into a logic trap, and I think anyone rightfully resents being treated like that. Just because someone “loses” such an argument does little to persuade their heart.

Secondly, the film also feels like an “everything but the kitchen sink” sort of approach, which I would think would overwhelm people and cause them to shut off or tune out.

I don’t believe the ends justify the means, which is actually one reason I oppose abortion. But applying that principle to this video, I am unsure that the high pressure and bombardment tactics used are excusable.

There were German soldiers who refused to be a part of the Nazi genocide. They were summarily shot and thrown into the pits as well.
The slippery slope to hell in Germany was gradual. Little by little, the rights of citizens were violated. It was not long before marginalized Germans were being put to death by the tens of thousands, and it was a short step to the millions slaughtered in the holocaust.

“In Germany they came first for the Communists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics, and I didn’t speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me, and by that time no one was left to speak up” Martin Niemöller (1892–1984).

We Americans have been traveling the same road for decades. How many of our citizens have been involuntarily euthanized (Happy death) in Oregon, and Washington. Euthanasia proponents will never stop at “voluntary” euthanasia.

“Like those hauled off to Auschwitz, the vulnerable elderly, severely disabled and chronically ill are being killed in large numbers. These vulnerable citizens suffer and die in their own silent Holocaust, a Holocaust that is invisible to the public, because it is hidden behind the wall of “privacy laws” that protect the killers, but do not protect the patients” (Ron Panzer - president of the pro-life patient advocacy organization Hospice Patients Alliance in Rockford, Michigan).

When will we wake up to the fact that an involuntary death is murder, whether in the womb or at any other stage of life?

Posted by mk on Thursday, Oct 6, 2011 9:11 AM (EDT):

Wow! That was truly awesome. I think the trick was to start with the holocaust without ever bringing up abortion…it was their own words that convicted them, not Ray Comforts. He helped them to see for themselves the inconsistencies in their views. So much better than just preaching it at them. I hope we watch this film on the buses going to the March for Life this year! (Are you listening Archdiocese of Chicago?)

Posted by Paolo on Wednesday, Oct 5, 2011 4:46 PM (EDT):

This video is a powerful way to see the two worlds in which we all live in tension: the one of devil and the one of the Holy Spirit. Our daily life is made, in fact, of struggle and choice. But the Holy Spirit can give us the hope of success even when we lose the game, thanks to our trust in Him. Veni creator Spiritus!

Posted by Jeremy Schwager on Wednesday, Oct 5, 2011 4:27 PM (EDT):

This movie is really powerful. I highly recommended watching it and sharing with your friends.

Posted by TRS on Wednesday, Oct 5, 2011 2:45 PM (EDT):

About a year ago, Archbishop Chaput wrote a column about the Mission of Catechesis…. he starts with a reference to Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery” and a conversation he had with a teacher who taught the story over a nearly 20 year span. In the 70s (and 80s - I remember it in my college lit class) students expressed shock and indignation… discussed the meaning of sacrifice and tradition —in the 90s… students just found the story ‘boring’. When pushed to discuss it… they excepted the story as accepting different cultures.

the article is here: http://www.archden.org/index.cfm/ID/4728

The point being… no one is teaching the difference between right and wrong (or critical thought for that matter).
An exercise as Drake describes (my plug in won’t let me watch the video… ) is critical for our society at any age to understand self and sacrifice…

Myself…. I’m not afraid to die. I long to see my heavenly father’s face… and my sister and dad. So I’d take the bullet - particularly to save others . Easy.

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About Tim Drake

Tim Drake is an award-winning writer and former journalist and radio host with the National Catholic Register/EWTN. He currently serves as New Evangelization Coordinator for the Holdingford Area Catholic Community in the Diocese of St. Cloud, Minnesota. He resides with his wife and five children in St. Joseph, Minn.